Search form

You are here

5-grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough from Hamelman's "Bread"

5-grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough from Hamelman's "Bread"

I like variety, so I could never say that any one bread is “my favorite.” However, I can say that the “Five-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough” from Hamelman's “Bread” would certainly be one of the candidates. It has a wonderful crunchy crust and a delicious complex flavor. It is fabulous fresh-baked. It stays moist for many days. It makes toast to die for. It is good unadorned or buttered, by itself or with other foods, for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's, incidentally, full of really healthy stuff. Moreover, it's really easy to make, and it's beautiful to look at. What's not to like?

This bread is made with a rye sourdough but is also spiked with commercial yeast. The sourdough is fed and a soaker is soaked 14-16 hours before mixing, but once the dough is mixed, the fermentation and proofing are rather short. I started putting the dough together at around 12:30 pm, and the bread was out of the oven at around 4:30 pm.

Notes on the formula

The overall hydration of the dough is 99%, but much of the water is absorbed by the soaker. The final dough is sticky, but like a rye bread dough not like a high-hydration white bread dough.

Also note that all the salt is in the soaker. This is to inhibit enzyme activity. The salt percentage may also seem high (2.2% of the total flour), but the grains in the soaker also need salt, so the bread does not seem overly salty in the least.

This formula makes a large batch of dough. It would have been difficult to mix it in my KitchenAid. I mixed it in my Bosch Universal Plus, which handled it with ease. If using a KitchenAid or similar stand mixer, you should consider scaling down the formula to 2/3 of that specified below.

Rye sourdough

Weight

Baker's %

Whole-rye flour

8 oz

100

Water

6.7 oz

83

Mature sourdough culture

0.4 oz

5

Total

15.1 oz

Soaker

Weight

Baker's %

Flaxseeds

2.9 oz

27.3

Cracked rye (I used pumpernickel flour)

2.9 oz

27.3

Sunflower seeds

2.4 oz

22.7

Oats

2.4 oz

22.7

Water (boiling, if cracked rye)

13.2 oz

125

Salt

0.7 oz

6.7

Total

1 lb, 8.5 oz

Final dough

Weight

High-Gluten flour (KAF Bread Flour)

1 lb, 8 oz

Water

10.5 oz

Yeast (Instant)

0.19 oz

Honey

0.5 oz

Soaker

1 lb, 8.5 oz

Sourdough

14.7 oz

Total

4 lb, 10.4 oz

Method

Mix the sourdough and ferment it at room temperature for 14-16 hours.

Prepare the soaker at the same time as the sourdough. Weigh out the grains and salt. Mix them. If cracked rye is used, boil the water and pour over the grains and mix. If using rye chops or coarse rye flour (pumpernickel), cold water can be used. Cover the soaker and leave it at room temperature.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a mixer bowl at low speed, then increase to medium speed (Speed 2 in a KitchenAid or Bosch) and mix to moderate gluten development. In my Bosch, I think this took around 10 minutes.

Transfer the dough to

a lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly and ferment for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into three equal pieces and shape into boules, bâtards or a combination.

Proof for 50-60 minutes in brotformen or en couche.

Preheat the oven to 480ºF with a baking stone and your steaming method of choice in place.

Pre-steam the oven. Transfer the loaves to a peel. Score them and load them onto your baking stone. Steam the oven. Turn the oven down to 460ºF.

After 15 minutes, remove your steaming apparatus, rotate the loaves if necessary for even browning, and turn the oven down to 440ºF. If the loaves are getting too dark, you can turn the oven down to 420ºF.

Comments

Superb as always David! The crumb is especially enticing. I'm intrigued by the salt in the soaker here. You point out that the grains need it and this approach provides it, but do you think this also helps maintain the distinctive flavor in the bread itself by not salting it down? I've baked a couple of multi-grain loaves (RLB, Hensperger) but have been disappointed at the flavor. The loaves have turned out well enough to look at, but lack-luster in flavor. I'm going to have to give this formula from "Bread" a try for comparison.

Thanks for the great writeup as always, and the pictures. They really say it all. Well, short of sharing a slice, anyway. :)

I think this is the only bread I've made which adds no salt to the "final dough." I don't know if adding all the salt to the soaker, as in this recipe, changes the flavor. In any case, both this bread and the 5-Grain Levain in "Bread" are among the most delightfully flavorful breads I've ever made.

I'm betting you would like it. Since the scratch and sniff and lick and taste computer screens are still under development, I guess you'll have to bake it yourself. Let us know how you like it, if you do.

You're welcome to stop by anytime! But, you should know, it's going to be 78ºF and sunny here tomorrow. I've a big day planned ... watching the cherry blossoms opening. (And trying out my just-arrived lame from TMB on some baguettes! Woohoo!)

I have not experience using either cracked soy nor chickpeas is a soaker, so I don't know how much water they absorb. That would determine whether the 140% hydration level is high, low or just right. The soaker should absorb all the water and not seem dry.

A 50% expansion during proofing doesn't sound excessive. There may be a different reason for your lack of oven spring. Do you have have photos, especially of the crumb?

I made this bread with WW but added VWG. Because he calls for HG flour I added some VWG to increase the protein in my WW. I don't do this with all the recipes, only if trying to substitute for High Gluten flour. I had very high rising, amazingly open crumb, soft loaves.

Baking three of these loaves today. I'm using bulger wheat (in place of cracked rye), millet (in place of sunflower seeds) , rolled oats and flax for my soaker. I just love the flax and millet. This will be a first for the bulger. I cooked rye berries last time and they were awesome. Last time I also had stone ground oats, this time it's rolled.

I'm making this bread right now for the second time. I noticed something in my notes that I forgot to mention. I added quite a lot of water to the final dough. I added a bit when I first mixed it up. I let it autolyse for about 20 minutes, mixed and then added some more. It soaked up like a sponge. It probably got an extra cup of water in the 3 loaves I'm baking today.

So, it could be that because you substituted the whole wheat your dough was too dry. Try adding water, letting it rest and adding some more. It seems to really prefer a lot of water, perhaps to soften all that bran?

I usually add extra water and autolyse like this when changing over to whole wheat from a white bread recipe.

From your description and the crumb photo, I'd say you had adequate gluten development. I think your dough was a bit wetter than intended. The dough should feel sticky because of the rye flour, but the loaves really shouldn't spread when you dump them out of the banneton.

I just read your updated list, David, and checked on this post which I hadn't seen before. The 5-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough is also one of my absolute favorites (I scaled it down to one loaf).

I noticed that you preheat the oven to 480 F - something I usually do, too, but hadn't done with Hamelman's formula. Makes a lot of sense, though, and I already followed your advice from other recipes, leaving the bread in the switched-off oven with door ajar. That was a very helpful advice that enhanced the crustiness of my Pains a l'Anciennes, too.

I started making this last night and the sourdough seemed very thick and pastey. Is that the same experience you had? I double checked the amounts twice and wih 8oz of rye flour and 6.7 of water it seems very thick to say the least.

Great loaves. Have you tried leaving out the yeast and doing an overnight retard with this bread? That's my approach for the Five-Grain Levain from 'Bread', but I wonder if it will work with a rye levain.

All original site content copyright 2015 The Fresh Loaf unless stated otherwise. Content posted by community members is their own. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. This site is powered by Drupal and Mollom. It is part of the Federated Media Publishing - Food channel. Click here for advertising information.